India's Essar Ports Eyes LNG Terminal Business

Essar Ports Ltd is looking to invest in LNG terminal as part of its diversification process.

Talking to Mint, a newspaper, Rajiv Agarwal, managing director, Essar Ports said the company is restructuring its business to beat the slowdown in cargo traffic, which has fallen due to lower import of cargo and restrictions on movement of iron ore.

The company is also attempting to strengthen its business by focusing on long-term and third-party contracts.

Essar Ports, part of Essar Group, is one of the largest private port companies in India with a current capacity of 140 million tonne (mt). This capacity will be expanded to 194 mt over the next few years, Mint reported.

It has five operational port terminals at Hazira, Vadinar, Paradip, Salaya and Vizag and handled approximately 90 mt of cargo during FY17.

Agarwal said the company is also planning significant investment to enter the LNG terminal business. The company will do this by setting up a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) near Hazira in Gujarat instead of a conventional LNG terminal on land, the newspaper added. The funds needed for the project would be raised through a mix of equity and debt.